University of Tübingen and Senckenberg Centre Correct Human Repopulation Period to 19,500 Years Ago
After the inhospitable conditions of the last ice age in Central Europe between 27,000 and 19,000 years ago, the Swabian Alb in what is now southern Germany was repopulated around 3,000 years earlier than previously thought. The old estimate was that modern humans returned to the region around 16,500 years ago. New data from two sites in the Lone Valley now show that humans left traces there around 19,500 years ago.
This was the result of a study by Benjamin Schürch, Dr. Gillian Wong and Dr. Elisa Luzi from the University of Tübingen and Professor Nicholas Conard, who is also a member of the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment. The research team also used findings from the Vogelherd Cave and the Langmahdhalde site to understand the repopulation more precisely in terms of space and time. The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
The Vogelherd Cave was first excavated in 1931 by Gustav Riek from the University of Tübingen. The work had to be completed within a short period of time, so the layers were not systematically recorded. Later excavations, including in the rubble from the cave, were carried out by Nicholas Conard and his team. “The site is known primarily for the small figurative works of art from the Aurignacian culture, which prevailed around 42,000 to 35,000 years ago,” reports Benjamin Schürch. “But there are also traces from the Magdalenian period, an archaeological cultural stage around 19,000 to 14,000 years ago with tools such as scratchers and burins made of stone, but also spearheads made of antler.” The Langmahdhalde rock overhang is only about two kilometers from the Vogelherd Cave. This site was excavated from 2016 to 2024 under the direction of Nicholas Conard and the layers were meticulously documented.
Dating of organic finds
The research team radiocarbon dated animal remains from the Vogelherd that had been worked on by humans, as well as organic material from the Langmahdhalde that was found in direct connection with stone tools from the Magdalenian period. This method takes advantage of the fact that organically bound carbon-14 decays in a precisely predictable manner. Its proportion in organic samples therefore provides information about the age of the artifacts sampled. “The oldest of these traces left by humans in the Vogelherd cave were thus dated to be around 19,500 years old. People appear to have been in the Langmahdhalde for the first time after the Ice Age between 17,900 and 17,000 years ago,” explains Schürch.
The researchers have carefully analyzed the cultural remains in the area surrounding the dated finds at both excavation sites. For example, they used projectile points made of antler and stone from the Magdalenian period of the Vogelherd Cave. By analyzing the microfaunal remains at the Langmahdhalde, they were also able to reconstruct the climate that people found in the region around 19,000 years ago. “Because the sites are so close together geographically, we were able to relate the more extensive finds from the Vogelherd to the more precisely documented sequence of layers in the Langmahdhalde. This was the only way we could gain a more comprehensive picture,” says Gillian Wong, summarizing the new findings. Modern humans had already repopulated the Swabian Alb in isolated cases at the end of the Ice Age, she says. “But they did not settle permanently in the region again until around 16,500 years ago.”